Who is behind the Fatah-Hamas clashes?

Recent armed clashes between Fatah
forces and newly formed Hamas security forces reflect
behind-the-scenes manoeuvres of imperialism to divide the Palestinian
people with the hope of overthrowing the newly elected Hamas
government. They are playing with fire.

On Monday, for two hours Fatah and
Hamas forces clashed in Gaza .One person, Khaled Radaida, the driver
of Yehiyeh Karala, the Jordanian ambassador, was killed and six
others wounded in the clashes when the new 3000-strong Hamas security
force made up of different militants fought a Fatah-dominated force
near Gaza's Palestinian parliament. Hamas and Fatah have accused each
other of starting the battle. However, some witnesses, according to
Al Jazeera, said members of the new Hamas-led militia returned fire
after coming under attack by the Preventive Security Agency, loyal to
Fatah and by some of the ordinary police loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian president.

This was verified indirectly by Tawfiq
Abu Khoussa, a spokesman for Fatah, who said, "security would
worsen if Hamas kept its new force on Gaza's streets in defiance of
the Palestinian president's orders to disband it.”

Last month Abbas, in a presidential
decree, accused Said Siyam, the Interior Minister, of acting
illegally in forming the new force and appointing Jamal Abu Samhadana
to lead it. The head of the new force is a founder member of the
Popular Resistance Committees and has survived at least one
assassination attempt by Israel.

Hamas' Interior Minister answered that
the decision to form such a force conformed with the law... “which
gives the minister the authority to take the necessary decisions to
guarantee security.”

Clearly what we have here is a
situation with a kind of dual power, with on the one hand the forces
loyal to the president whom the US and the Israeli government
prefer and on the other hand the forces loyal to the new
government.

It seems that Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas
spokesman, was telling the truth when he said that, "Hamas force
members were defending themselves after coming under attack."

This clash was not the first one since
Hamas was elected in January this year and formed the new government.
However, it was the most intense. In the last few weeks eight people
have died in these clashes. Radaida's death has brought to eight the
number of people killed in internal fighting in Gaza this month.

A few days ago, Tareq Abu Rajab, the
chief of Palestinian intelligence services appointed to this job in
April 2005 by the President, and one of Israel’s favourites, was
taken to a hospital in Israel after being seriously injured in a
blast at his Gaza headquarters Ali Abu Hassira, Abu Rajab's bodyguard
and nephew, died of his wounds shortly after the explosion, and at
least 15 other people were wounded in the blast

The Palestinian security sources
accused Hamas. In Ramallah, Palestinian gunmen from the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Abbas's Fatah movement, broke into
the parliament compound in protest against the explosion in Gaza,
blaming Hamas.

The Hamas'government however denied
this. Ghazi Hamad a spokesman for Hamas stated that one should not
make hasty conclusion: “People should not make quick judgments and
should listen to the voice of wisdom. We don't want to increase the
tensions in the Palestinian street."

Abu Rajab had many enemies and it is
more likely that it was not Hamas but some groups who want to provoke
for such clashes, which is similar to what we are seeing in Iraq.

Following the blast, Tawfiq Tirawi, the
deputy intelligence services chief, told reporters in Ramallah: “We
have information that many groups are trying to target leaders of the
Palestinian security forces as well as political leaders, including
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.”

These groups may be connected to the
Islamic Jihad that has been accusing Hamas of becoming traitors to
the cause. Since Hamas took power it has indicated a few times it is
ready to make peace with Israel on certain conditions. For example on
Friday, April 21, 2006, Khalid Mishaal, Hamas's chief political
officer, told ZDF, a German public television channel that peace with
Israel is achievable only if it returns the land seized in 1967,
including Jerusalem, back to Palestine. Other conditions Mishaal
listed include, "the right of refugees to return as well as the
dismantling of Jewish settlements, the destruction of the separation
barrier and the release of all Palestinian detainees… If, and only
if, Israel does this, then Hamas, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims
will be ready for true peace.”

Israel would find it much harder to
fight and defeat a united Palestinian movement fighting the
occupation. However, clearly neither Hamas nor Fatah, both competing
to be part of the Pax Americana, are able to lead the struggle
against the occupation. The rulers of Israel are close allies of US
imperialism and they have made it quiet clear that under no condition
will they accept Hamas as a partner in the Pax Americana.

Thus, the conclusions that we can draw
are that these new clashes reflect in one way or another attempts by
Israel and the US – to provoke a civil war, hoping in this
way to topple the Hamas government.

Thus once again it is clear that there
is no solution within the imperialist order. The struggle against the
occupation needs a very different kind of leadership, one that
understands that the real enemies of the Palestinian people, and the
Israeli people, are the imperialists and all the forces that are
serving or want to serve the imperialist order and these include not
only the Bush administration, but also the banks and the big
capitalists, both Arab and Jewish. Bloody conflict serves them well
as they can use it to divert the class struggle away from them and
channel it into bloody ethnic conflicts. This would be a blind alley
fro all the workers of the region, whichever nationality they belong
to.

The only possible solution can be
offered by the working class, a Socialist Federation of the Middle
East where the Palestinians and the Israelis would have national
territorial autonomies within a socialist federated state. To achieve
this a revolutionary Marxist leadership is required.